CROMWELL'S SPY

The life and times of a “perfidious rogue.”

This biography by journalist and author Sewell follows Sir George Downing from being in the first class to graduate Harvard to rising through the British aristocracy—working for Oliver Cromwell as a spy, and then in the same capacity for Charles II after the Restoration. He acquired a wife and children, a country house, and a reputation not just as a turncoat, but also as “real vile,” in the words of the Earl of Shaftesbury. It was Samuel Pepys, Downing’s clerk, who called him a “perfidious rogue.” Downing was also responsible for a war with the Dutch and for creating what we now know as “appropriations,” wherein money set aside by Parliament must be used for that specific purpose. He was also a property speculator, building a rather shabby terrace in London named on his behalf and which, at Number 10, still houses the British prime minister. The bare bones of the author’s narrative, however, do not so much flesh out a portrait of a fascinating character as signify a Zelig-like ability to be in so many interesting places. The reason, despite Sewell’s best efforts, is that people engaged in espionage tend to be elusive. Downing’s trade was torture, bribery, and thuggery, including a kidnapping the author suggests was the first recorded case of extraordinary rendition. Readers are given a flavor of the mayhem, when reminded that under Cromwell, “Aston, commander of the Royalist troops, was beaten to death with his own wooden leg.” Of course, between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, atrocities were committed on both sides—and Downing worked for both. He also tried to sell Scottish prisoners of war into slavery, and the slave trade helped his own family’s rise. Briefly imprisoned in the Tower after infuriating the king by his escape from the Dutch, he characteristically kept his purse open and his mouth shut.

A capable history of a sketchy rogue.